Save the Children Receives 35,000 Books for U.S. Children in Need From Penguin Random House

Donation is part of successful #GiveaBook campaign

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (January 15, 2015) — Penguin Random House announced today that it will donate an additional 10,000 books to Save the Children, for a total of 35,000, in celebration of the 2014 #GiveaBook holiday campaign that promoted books as gifts during holiday season and focused on giving back to U.S. children in need.

Last month, when the #GiveaBook holiday campaign surpassed its goal of appearing as a hashtag on Facebook and Twitter 25,000 times, Penguin Random House increased the amount of its pledge by 10,000 books to encourage more posts and tweets containing the #GiveaBook hashtag. As of December 24, the last day of the campaign, the hashtag had been shared more than 35,707 times.

Carolyn Miles, President & CEO of Save the Children said, "We are thrilled that so many caring individuals chimed in to #GiveaBook to activate Penguin Random House's generous donation of books to U.S. children in need. The donation of 35,000 books surpassed expectations and will make a major difference for many families who have few if any children's books in the home.”

“We know what an incredible impact reading to young children in the earliest months and years of their life can make, and we thank Penguin Random House and everyone who participated for giving more children a chance to reach their full potential,” Miles said.

The donated books will be distributed to families enrolled in Save the Children’s Early Steps to School Success program, which is active in hiqh-poverty rural communities across 14 states. The program helps parents and caregivers build essential pre-literacy skills with their infants, toddlers and pre-school aged children through home visiting, book distribution and community engagement activities.

Research has shown that children living in poverty are likely to start school 18 months behind their better-off peers. But 80 percent of young children who have gone through Save the Children’s early childhood program score at or above average in pre-literacy tests.

There is more good news for readers following the #GiveaBook campaign: Now that you’ve #GotABook, join us for the National Readathon and make #TimeToRead! The first National Readathon, benefitting the National Book Foundation, is January 24, 2015. Visit http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/readathon/ to learn more.

Save the Childrengives children in the United States and around the world a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We invest in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. Follow us on Twitterand Facebook.

Penguin Random House is the world’s largest and first truly global trade book publisher. The company is made up of 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually worldwide, along with the works of more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read bestselling authors. It employs more than 11,500 people across the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print, audio, and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India and South Africa; Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia; DK Worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Central America, and its Portuguese-language company in Portugal. Penguin Random House was formed on July 1, 2013 and is jointly owned by Bertelsmann (53%) and Pearson (47%).

Save the Children gives children in the United States and around the world a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We invest in childhood — every day, in times of crisis and for our future. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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